I think it is a little bit prudish. I think that it is really all about intent. If your intent is to absolutely maliciously steal, and steal as much as you can from your company, that is bad.
If however, you are working on something and you bring it on the train and you have a pen in your hand on the way out the door, I don't think that is stealing. Especially if you are doing any kind of work at home or outside the office. Same goes for emails etc that are printed out.
The dollar value is a key factor here. I wouldn't stress over taking a pen home, but I certainly wouldn't be pocketing pairs of scissors, staplers, ink cartridges for printers, etc. I think that generally, if it costs more than 1 or 2 bucks, you probably shouldn't be taking it out of the office.
Lazy Man and Money
· 2 years ago
If the babysitter has a grape from the fridge while she's babysitting for you is that stealing? Is it different than your printing out a copy of the New York Times? As Easychange says the dollar value is the key factor. You wouldn't care about the missing grape, but you might care if she took your DVD player home. It's the same principle.
What about if the company asks you to stay late 5 minutes late to get a report done? If you are on salary, do you say, "Nope, sorry, I'm not getting paid any extra for it, I'm out." In some cases you might, but most of the time people would say "Sure, no a problem." In this case, the company is stealing for you, taking your time without giving compensation. Sure they ask you, so you are volunteering. However, if you were to ask your HR person if you can print a copy of the Times on the way home, they'd laugh at you and say "of course." They'd probably even suggest that everyone do it as it educates their whole workforce - a benefit to the company as a whole.
bripblap
· 2 years ago
Easychange and Lazy Man, you both have a point. Honestly, I don't worry too much myself about taking small things, and I doubt the company would either. Dollar value is probably key for most people. The question would be where the cutoff point is... $3? $30?
There's definitely a give-and-take between employer and employee, though, and no-one needs to be sitting there keeping a running tally of "minutes kept late" and "pens taken home". It definitely made me think a little bit more when I started getting paid hourly rather than getting a salary, though, because now my time is compensated minute-for-minute so there's no 'extra 5 minutes' like Lazy Man mentions.
All Comments
If however, you are working on something and you bring it on the train and you have a pen in your hand on the way out the door, I don't think that is stealing. Especially if you are doing any kind of work at home or outside the office. Same goes for emails etc that are printed out.
The dollar value is a key factor here. I wouldn't stress over taking a pen home, but I certainly wouldn't be pocketing pairs of scissors, staplers, ink cartridges for printers, etc. I think that generally, if it costs more than 1 or 2 bucks, you probably shouldn't be taking it out of the office.
What about if the company asks you to stay late 5 minutes late to get a report done? If you are on salary, do you say, "Nope, sorry, I'm not getting paid any extra for it, I'm out." In some cases you might, but most of the time people would say "Sure, no a problem." In this case, the company is stealing for you, taking your time without giving compensation. Sure they ask you, so you are volunteering. However, if you were to ask your HR person if you can print a copy of the Times on the way home, they'd laugh at you and say "of course." They'd probably even suggest that everyone do it as it educates their whole workforce - a benefit to the company as a whole.
There's definitely a give-and-take between employer and employee, though, and no-one needs to be sitting there keeping a running tally of "minutes kept late" and "pens taken home". It definitely made me think a little bit more when I started getting paid hourly rather than getting a salary, though, because now my time is compensated minute-for-minute so there's no 'extra 5 minutes' like Lazy Man mentions.